


What is Love?

by Starbooks13



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Love, Valentine's Day, it's complicated - Freeform, need i say more?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 11:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbooks13/pseuds/Starbooks13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which relationships take on many different forms and love isn't easy to define.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What is Love?

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to get this done before midnight, but some of the couples refused to cooperate. Ah, well. Happy Valentine's Day to all my lovely readers!

                For Tony and Pepper, love is compromise.  

                Their love is a partnership, a merger of two aligned interests desiring to create something greater by working together.  Sometimes it’s easy.  But most of the time, it’s a struggle.  There are disagreements, differences of opinion, and things that they cannot change about each other.  Part of Tony will never consider himself good enough for Pepper.  Part of Pepper will never get used to the idea of Tony willingly endangering his life.  There are fights and there are sacrifices.  

                But it works because they have accepted that they can’t always get what they want.  Their sacrifices are made willingly, if occasionally grudgingly.  And it is always worth it, because giving something up means keeping the one thing that they can’t live without: each other.

 

                For Bruce and Betty, love is patience.

                Their relationship has been a testament to the phrase, “hurry up and wait.”  They couldn’t wait to meet each other, but it took forever for them to find the courage to start dating.  Betty couldn’t wait for Bruce to meet her father, but it took forever for General Ross to even marginally approve of Bruce.  They couldn’t wait to work together on Bruce’s gamma radiation project, but then it took five years before they saw each other again.  They couldn’t wait to run away together, but then it took three years before they could be together without any obstacles barring their paths.

                That’s not to say that the waits have been miserable.  They’ve both found happiness, with and without each other, during those spaces.  And even when they haven’t been together, they’ve thought about each other.  But waiting is not easy, even when you have all the patience in the world.

                They kept at it, though.  Even now, they still wait for the other to grow accustomed to their new life together, to be ready to take a step forward in their relationship.  And they’ve managed to stay in love because, in the end, the wait has never been in vain.

 

                For Thor and Jane, love is fairy-tale.

                Granted, it’s a bit twisted.  For example, the knight in shining armor wasn’t so shiny at the start, and the fair maiden is occasionally not-so-ladylike.  Oh, and the damsel in distress has saved her hero nearly as often as he’s saved her.  And the prince’s kingdom hasn’t exactly given his lowly lover a royal welcome, though the Asgardians are slowly warming up to her.  

                But that first spark that drew them together hasn’t gone out since.  If anything, as they’ve learned more about each other’s histories, opinions, and passions, it’s burned brighter.  They fit together in ways that even they never thought they would.  Thor draws her out of her shell just as much as she keeps his less noble impulses in check.  He makes her brave and she makes him gentle.  His knowledge aids her research and her research helps him protect their universe.  They are two halves of a whole, and nothing, not even Hel herself, could part them without their consent.

                Because they are Hel-bent on living happily ever after—for as long as they can.

 

                For Clint and Darcy, love is not something they’re ready for.

                They haven’t been together that long to start with, and they were pretty reluctant going in as it was.  Darcy had just gotten out of a bad relationship with her British ex-intern, Ian, and Clint?  Well, he’d never been lucky in love.  Oh, they’d become friends pretty quickly after meeting each other, and neither would deny they thought the other was attractive.  But even thinking about starting a serious relationship with the other just screamed “bad idea.”

                Then they started ending up in life-or-death situations together.  A lot.  And life-or-death situations make you think differently about the people around you.  Particularly if you’ve shared said life-or-death situations with them, and even more so if they’re someone you care about who you also find attractive.  Needless to say, after their tenth or twelfth near-agonizing-death, they threw their hands up, said “what the hell?” and started dating.

                What surprised them both was just how compatible they ended up being.  They already knew about their shared snarky senses of humor and tastes in music and entertainment.  Then they discovered they felt comfortable operating on compatible daily schedules, they shared similar political views, and the sex—dear God, the sex was _fantastic_.  They could see themselves happily having sex only with each other for the rest of their lives.

                That was what scared them both, more than a little—how easy it would be for them to fall in love.  But the more they got to know each other, the less scary the entire prospect seemed.  They may not be ready now, but in the future?  If things kept going as good as they were?

                Definitely maybe.

                

                For Steve and Peggy, love was for later.

                They were in the middle of a war.  Not only did they not have time to fall in love, it was absolutely the wrong time to even look for love.  At any moment, either one of them could die, leaving the other one heartbroken.  It was better, safer, to not think about love, to wait until this damn war was over before thinking about it.

                But they couldn’t stop themselves.  They fell in love without thinking, without realizing what they’d gotten into until it was far too late.  And then they just hit roadblock after roadblock, with Peggy seeing Steve getting seduced by the secretary and then Steve running all over Europe for weeks at a time hunting HYDRA.  That kiss during the base assault had only happened because Peggy had been in the field with him, had not been angry with him, and had realized that this really might be their last chance.

                In the end, it was, and it wasn’t nearly enough.  The next time they saw each other, everything had changed.  The world had changed, Peggy had changed—hell, even Steve had started to change.  Their love wasn’t the same anymore.  They’d had their chance, and they’d missed it.

                But though their love changed, it never went away.  And so long as it’s still there, they’ll be just fine.

 

                For Loki and Natasha, love is for children.

                What they have is not love.  It is too dark, too cold, too violent.  They do not seek love, either, from each other or anyone else.  She has been taught that it is dangerous, that it compromises you and makes you weak.  He has learned that it is a lie, preached by hypocrites and prone to shattering at the slightest pressure.  Neither of them sees much value it in, so why bother looking for it?  

                In each other, they have found something better.  An enemy, especially a worthy enemy whose devious mind is a match for your own, is far more dependable than a lover, for where love is fickle hatred is enduring.  And they do hate each other passionately.  He has harmed those she cares for, and he will keep doing it as long as he lives.  She has humiliated him, bested him at his own game in a way that few mortals ever have, and she refuses to break no matter what he does.  They find satisfaction in the other’s humiliation, pleasure in their pain, whether on the battlefield with steel at each other’s throats or in the bedroom with silk sheets tangled around their legs.

                And in their drive to best their opponent, they have come to know each other’s greatest secrets, their deepest fears and darkest desires.  They have seen each other stripped bare and at their most vulnerable; he knows the full scope of her ledger, she the true color of his skin.  In their mutual enmity they have found a twisted intimacy, an odd solace in knowing that they do not have to hide from each other.  They are monsters, blood-soaked creatures born of shadows and lies, but rather than reject each other’s darkness, they embrace it as the mirror of their own.

                What they have is not love.  But is it something, it is powerful, and they will never deny it.


End file.
